on Bookwaves and Arts-Waves. All programs can be heard below or at www.kpfa.orgfor the podcast. Because archived material is timed to begin exactly on the hour/half hour, recorded shows may start seconds or minutes after the link begins playing. All interviews are conducted by Richard Wolinsky, unless otherwise noted.

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Cover to Cover

December 26, 2016

December 29. 2016

Anne Rice, author of Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis and The Vampire Chronicles.

The latest novel in Anne Rice's series of books featuring Lestat and her other vampire characters hearkens back to the origins of Amel, the spirit in all vampires, back in Atlantis. Second in her current series.

John Lahr, author of Joy Ride: Show People and their Shows and Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh. John Lahr spent 21 years as theater critic for The New Yorker, writing profiles and reviews, some of which are collected in Joy Ride, which examines playwrights, directors and their shows. He is also the author of a recent biography of Tennessee Williams, which focuses on the playwright's later years. Recorded in September, 2015.

Jane Smiley, author of the Last Hundred Years trilogy: Some Luck, Early Warning, and Golden Age. An epic trilogy of novels, telling the story of one hundred years, year by year, from 1920-2019, in the life of an Iowan farming family, interacting with the economic and political and social news of the decades as they happen. Rebroadcast from Jan., 2016.

Co-hosted by Richard A. Lupoff. Arthur Laurents was a playwright (Time of the Cuckoo), librettist (West Side Story, Gypsy), screenwriter, and theater director. In this interview recorded in San Francisco on April 7, 2000 while on tour for his memoir, Original Story By, he discusses his life and career.

The author of the highly acclaimed The Information takes a look at time travel in fact and fiction, from H.G. Wells to Albert Einstein. The strength of the book is the science, not the fiction, which only covers a handful of short stories and novels.

A fairy tale set in the early years of the twentieth century, Little Nothing is about tranformations as an Eastern European girl goes through different manifestations in a backdrop of war and the changing face of civilization. Marisa Silver is a former film director.

The coming of age of four African American girls growing up in Brooklyn in the 1970s is a poetic tour de force, a finalist for the National Book Award. Jacqueline Woodson is better known as one of the premier writers of young adult and middle school fiction.

Joel Selvin, author of Altamont: The Rolling Stones, The Hells Angels and the Inside Story of Rock’s Darkest Day.

A fascinating look at the legendary disastrous Altamont concert in December 1969 and its effect on music culture, from the role of the Rolling Stones and Hells Angels, to the culture wars raging inside the hippie community.

The son of the noted journalist, Joe McGinnis Jr shows how a family falls apart during the mortgage crisis of 2008 as they struggle to survive in a neighborhood of abandoned McMansions in California's Inland Empire.

In the Darkroom is a memoir about Susan Faludi's reconnection with her estranged father, who had moved back to Hungary and had a sex-change operation. The book is about identity, not only sexual, but also national and religious, and reads like a novel.

Jonathan Lethem in Berkeley. Excerpts from a live interview recorded March 3, 3016 as a benefit for KPFA. Jonathan Lethem is the acclaimed author of Motherless Brooklyn, Fortress of Solitude, Chrome City and other novels. His latest novel, A Gambler's Anatomy, is released this month.

Carl Hiaasen is one of the best authors today in the field of comic crime novels. Razor Girl, as with previous books, is set in southern Florida (in this case Key West) and satirizes the state's politics and culture, including environmental issues and reality television.

Interview recorded April 19, 1988 with Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff. While Shoeless Joe became the film Field of Dreams, Kinsella was also a master of the short story and an underrated novelist.

Carolina de Robertis, author of The Gods of Tango, now out in trade paperback. The Gods of Tango tells the story of an young woman, an Italian immigrant to Buenos Aires, Argentina, at the turn of the 20th Century who strives to become a tango musician by disguising herself as a man.

The Gershwin Project I: English Strunsky. Ira Gershwin's brother in law, recorded August 25, 1992. First in a series of interviews recorded in the 1990s about George and Ira Gershwin, most of which have never aired.

Pumpkinflowers is the story of an Israeli outpost in southern Lebanon in the late 1990s, as seen from the eyes of conscripted Israeli soldiers who were stationed there. That war is now forgotten, and the hopefulness of the era has turned grim. Friedman served at the Pumpkin, and later went to Lebanon and saw the region as a tourist.

Kim Addonizio, author of Bukowski in a Sundress and Mortal Trash. Poet, novelist and short story writer, Kim Addonizio has built up a reputation as one of the most original and quirky voices writing today. Her memoir, Bukowski in a Sundress, deals with issues involving being a writer, dealing with an elderly parent, and working through issues of childhood.

Garry Marshall 1934-2016. Garry Marshall, the creator of the classic TV series Happy Days and The Odd Couple, and director of such films as Pretty Woman and Overboard, came through the Bay Area in 2012 on a book tour for his memoir, My Happy Days in Hollywood. A terrific raconteur, he even talks about how Fonzie jumped the shark.

Justin Cronin, author of The City of Mirrors, third volume of "The Passage" series.

Justin Cronin's best-selling fantasy/science fiction post-apocalyptic trilogy details what happens following the outbreak of a virus that turns people into vampire zombies. But it's not your standard genre series because Cronin is a literary writer who deals with various issues present in today's environment.

Jim Obergefell, co-author of Love Wins: The Lovers and Lawyers Who Fought the Landmark Case for Marriage Equality. Written like a thriller, Love Wins, co-written by journalilst Debbie Cenziper, tells the story of the marriage equality case against the backdrop of Jim and John’s relationship, and the relationships of others who also joined the case.

John Leguizamo, writer and performer, Latin History for Morons, at Berkeley Rep through August 14, 2016. (Also includes obituary for Lawrence Davidson, founder of this program when it was called Probabilities)

Barbara Cook was the original Cunegonde in the Leonard Bernstein musical Candide, the original Marian the Librarian in The Music Man, and the original Amalia in She Loves Me. After a bout with alcoholism and weight gain in the early 1970s, she emerged as one of the leading interpreters of the American popular song canon. This fascinating memoir follows her life and her career. The interview was recorded at her apartment in New York.

Paula McLain, author of Circling The Sun, now out in paperback. A novel about the early life of famed aviatrix Beryl Markham, set mostly in colonial Kenya and dealing with her complicated relationship with Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen) and other expatriates.

Viet Thanh Nguyen came over from Vietnam with his family at the time of the fall of Saigon. The Sympathizer is the story of a Communist exile in America following the end of the Vietnam War, both a spy and in some respects, a lover of American culture.

Jamie Brickhouse, author of Dangerous When Wet: A Memoir of Booze, Sex and My Mother, which deals with his life growing up gay in Beaumont, Texas and ending up an alcoholic in New York. Jamie Brickhouse is a former publicity director for several large publishing houses who has also worked as a stand-up comedian and storyteller. His memoir deals with his relationship with his overbearing mother, and his move to New York, where he became the life of the party, until the party overwhelmed his life.

Whit Stillman, author and director of Love & Friendship (movie and book). Whit Stillman, director of films such as Metropolitan and Damsels in Distress, had his biggest commercial hit in 2016 with this wonderful adaptation of a Jane Austen epistolary novella, which he then turned into a novelization as if it was written by the older Austen, and then coupled his story with that of the original.

Adam Hochschild, author of Spain In Our Hearts: Americans in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939. A brilliant history of the Spanish Civil War, focusing on a handful of Americans who wrote diaries and letters speaking of their involvement. With the rise of fascism in the United States, this history becomes extremely timely.

Yann Martel, author of The High Mountains of Portugal and Life of Pi. Rebroadcast from March 10, 2016.

Yann Martel became an international figure with the publication of his novel, Life of Pi, and the subsequent award-winning film by director Ang Lee. Yann Martel’s latest novel, The High Mountains of Portugal, consists of three sections, set in three different time periods, and is a philosophical investigation into the nature of faith.

Laura Tillman, author of The Long Shadow of Small Ghosts: Murder and Memory in an American City. This book is thetrue story of a horrific murder in Brownsville, Texas, and its relationship to the community, putting violent crime in the context of society at large.

Stewart O'Nan, author of the novel, City of Secrets. O'Nan's latest novel is a Graham Greene type thriller, set in Jerusalem in the aftermath of World War II, during the battles between various Jewish underground groups and British forces. A page turning literary thriller.

Welcome to Braggsville is a novel in which college students from UC Berkeley go to a small town in Georgia to protest a Civil War re-enactment. Recorded live in front of an audience at Pegasus Bookstore on Solano Avenue in Berkeley.

The author of several dystopian end of world novels, as well as the thinly disguised memoir, Empire of the Sun, J. G. Ballard was a key member of the English New Wave science fiction authors of the 1960s, a literary writer who delved deeply into speculative fiction. This interview was conducted by Richard Wolinsky, Richard A. Lupoff and Lawrence Davidson while Ballard was on tour for his novel set in Africa, The Day of Creation. Digitized, remastered and re-edited in 2016 by Richard Wolinsky.

The best-selling author of 28 fast-paced novels of suspense, Harlan Coben has won virtually every major award in the field. His latest book, Fool Me Once, features a protagonist suffering from PTSD, and as with all Coben novels, features unexpected twists. Great vacation reading.

Miller's Valley is set in the late 1960s and early 1970s about a girl in a soon-to-be lost town who comes of age and power with the rise of second wave feminism. Anna Quindlen is a former columnist for the NY Times and Newsweek.

A.O. Scott is one of America’s foremost film critics. Since 2002, he’s shared the chief movie review slot at the New York Times with Mahnola Dargis. His book, Better Living Through Criticism: How to Think about Art, Pleasure, Beauty and Truth, takes a look at reviewing and criticism, at some of the challenges critics face, and at some of the issues that roll across his mind every time he writes a review.

Interview recorded in 2007 on tour for the novel, Returning to Earth. Jim Harrison, who died on March 26th, 2016 at the age of 78, was one of those figures people call “larger than life.” A novelist, essayist, poet, screenplay writer and master of the novella, Harrison dealt in his work with issues such as mortality, living the solitary life, redemption and absolution, work that, as the NY Times obituary said, captured the resonant, almost mythic soul of 20th-century rural America.

Kazuo Ishiguro, author of The Buried Giant, now out in trade paper.An allegorical fantasy novel dealing with the nature of genocide and remembrance, taking place in medieval England but based on more recent events.

Price's latest novel, written under the name Harry Brandt, tells the story of a group of cops obsessed with "white whales," people who committed crimes and got away with it. As with any Richard Price novel, the depth of characterization is the real key to the work. Rebroadcast from 2015.

A Little Life made a huge splash in the literary world. The story of a group of friends in New York, this long narrative received terrific reviews and was one of six finalists for the prestigious Man Booker Prize. It's stunning and intense and emotionally difficult. A major work.

Yann Martel became an international figure with the publication of his novel, Life of Pi, and the subsequent award-winning film by director Ang Lee. Yann Martel’s latest novel, The High Mountains of Portugal, consists of three sections, set in three different time periods, and is aphilosophical investigation into the nature of faith.

A writers' writer, James Salter wrote works of fiction and non-fiction as well as screenplays. Interview recorded October 7, 1997 while on tour for his memoir, Burning The Days. Hosted by Richard Wolinsky & Richard A. Lupoff. Remastered and re-edited by Richard Wolinsky in 2016.

Hotels of North America is an often screamingly funny book about an internet reviewer with issues. Moody's books are unclassifiable, ranging from science fiction and horror send-ups to experimental works on a variety of issues.

Jane Smiley, author of Some Luck, Early Warning and Golden Age (The Last Hundred Years Trilogy)

An epic trilogy of novels, telling the story of one hundred years, year by year, from 1920-2019, in the life of an Iowan farming family, interacting with the economic and political and social news of the decades as they happen.